Reincarnation Flower
by Frostypine
Summary: They were once the hardworking, unpaid, unappreciated peasant companion of an incompetent hero, their unlimited potential was continually stifled by their humble birthright, the whims of 'gods' and a lifelong case of bad luck lasting over at least several lifetimes. Then a hundred years after their death…they begin an entirely different kind of existence…
1. The Hero's Peasant Companion

A Very Long Prologue Part 1: The Hero's Peasant Companion

I was born a peasant in a small village, technically part of the human kingdom of Alfdorn, a relatively small kingdom bordered by the sea on two sides, a small monster kingdom on one and a large demon kingdom on the only other. Alfdorn was a kingdom that was a harsh place to live for the majority of the human population which were peasants. This was mostly because of the kingdoms high degree of isolation. There were no other human kingdoms close by, or even within long traveling distance. The rare few people from other kingdoms to come to Alfdorn were extremely adventurous and most did not stay long. it was this extreme isolation that enabled Alfdorn to remain relatively the same for thousands of years, and Alfdorn's usual culture was made up of an extremely strict caste system. A peasant usually doesn't move a mile from the place thsey were born in so now that I think about it, it was quite the achievement that I a mere peasant was now standing in front of the demon lord's castle which was quite the distance form Aldorn probably the farthest I have ever been from "home" in my life.

It had taken us months to get to this point and strangely we had encountered relatively few monsters for an area near a dungeon where a supposedly "last boss" type resided…So I was not very surprised when upon than entering the castle itself we were utterly swarmed…by lesser demons. Hero through luck managed to hit a few…and of course a large amount was easily taken down by myself. Lesser demons were not that hard to kill so things were going well. Then as usual Hero had to go and mess things up. It happened unfortunately just as I was reaching out to strike the last of the mob that had managed to survive our first attack; Hero seemly tripped over his own feet and knocked me to the ground. To add to this great blunder he then proceeded to fall in such a way that he landed on top of me and I was knocked unconscious. This was not that strange a situation as Hero was a good deal taller and heavier then I was, plus he was also wearing heavy armor whilst I was just in my usual light leather adventuring clothes. Not to mention I couldn't dodge because of the position I was in as I attacked that lesser demon. Yes it was not a strange event, but it was my cursed luck and Hero's stupidity that made it a life ending one.

I awoke to the taste of strange ambrosia, strange not because of an awe-inspiring taste but rather because of a breath taking utter lack of flavor of any kind, it was a godly pure liquid, that felt like the finest of silks on the tongue and gloriously cool and smooth going down the throat. But I didn't get to enjoy the sensation for long though, because soon after I gained consciousness I started to increasingly become aware of a monstrous pain awakening throughout my body…as my own blood was being boiled and was burning the very veins it ran through. I shoved the bottle still touching my lips away and leapt to my feet, I noticed that I was still grasping my sword in my left hand…and that as I waved the blade to maintain my balance the great pain I was experiencing temporarily decreased. I looked up and saw Hero who was kneeling on the ground in order to low enough to feed me, the bottles contents…a silver bottles contents I noticed with a roar of emotion.

"What the %#$! Is this?" I screamed at him pointing to the bottle still held in his hand

"Potion I th-think" he stuttered at me as he got back to his feet. "Don't yell at me I saved your life!"

I grabbed the bottle out of his hand and studied it closely… when I confirmed that things were as I had feared I nearly cried out in despair but was able somehow gain control over myself again

_You didn't save my life you ended you moron_ I thought…I then turned to face him and said…

"Let's rush the rest of the way."

"But you always say that it is stupid to rush, and then every time I rush into things you refuse to cook for me." Hero pointed out confusedly

"Don't worry, right now is an exception to the rule; I promise that I won't refuse to cook for you again…"

Hero was delighted at this good news but reality was different as I thought morbidly in my head _I won't refuse to cook for you because I will never get the chance to cook for you ever again_.

As we rushed in, I ended up in front of the hero easily and quickly slaughtering all the lesser demons and monsters in our path. I allowed myself to find some pleasure in the ease in which I was killing. I finally had what I had always desired, power Power was the reason I had joined the guard with hopes of eventual knighthood and most importantly power was the goal that gave me strength as in every spare moment I pushed myself to the limit training myself in an attempt to acquire it. Power was all I ever thought of until I was cut off from the path of knighthood when Hero looked at the guard recruits and picked me to be his companion because in his own words:

"I want that recruit, he is so plain that when I am standing next to him I will look even better"

Knighthood had been intended to be a shortcut to the one possible way to gain social power that someone born as peasant had. That is being in a position to rescue someone of importance and then ask to be raised to nobility as a reward, and Hero for the first time then and many times since blundered in and blocked my path. In Alfdorn to be a Hero's companion usually meant permanent and eternal peasanthood plus the unpaid honor of servitude to a hero, which meant no longer did I have the chance of earning nobility through knighthood. While hero wittingly chatted with females whom he blinded with his good looks. I worked my %#$! to plan and execute strategies, to defeat our enemies, and solve the missions that Hero's job entailed, I was the open secret behind Hero's 100% success rate and thus his high position and rank with in the heroes guild. But did I get any credit or recognition for it? Of course not Hero basked in all the glory and honor of being a "great hero" and I stood in his shadow relatively unknown.

Even though I did not receive any reward directly I probably would have been happy with my hidden success in completely missions, but that was not the only part of my job. Besides doing most of Hero's work for him I also had to clean up the messes Hero caused, which was almost full time job by itself. So as you can see I speak the truth when I say Hero took away my dream of gaining power in a multitude of ways. Because of him I had very little time to practice or train myself and thus there were very many other people stronger than me and that I didn't have a chance of being able to fight them.

But right now, thanks to the heroic water I was extremely strong and combined with my well trained skills it was a deadly combination. If any of those strong people I mentioned were here now I could probably easily defeat them. So since I knew I would be in this life much longer I decided to take pleasure where I could in the small things such as just now beating that ugly high bat shaped lesser demon in one blow despite that I judged by the way it moved it was a much higher level than myself. Yes I decided to take pleasure in my power despite the source of my power being of artificial make.

With my heroic water enhanced speed and well researched knowledge of the castles layout from those who had managed to escape the castle with their lives I quickly and easily reached the demon lord's chamber…it was huge, empty and dark…but with glowing red sconces here and there enabling me to easily see the huge gleaming black heavily sculpted and masterfully embellished throne…and the man in black armor sitting on the throne. He was even more handsome than Hero with his silky long black hair, perfected milk white skin features beautiful enough to make any courtesan jealous. This statement was perfectly sound despite his obvious inhumanity which showed with his pointed ears, long black horns and slitted red eyes. To my surprise, he didn't look angry, scared, prideful or even annoyed. He seemed calm and peaceful as if he was relaxing at home which I guess he was.

Hero had very few wits but what he few he had were usually used to judge beauty. Beauty of women and more importantly beauty of his rivals…so when he caught up with me a few moments after I stepped into the throne room and squinted at the throne until he noticed the demon lord, he was soon seething from jealously… he pushed me to the side and then dramatically stood in front of me and faced the demon lord with his most heroic pose then boomed in a theatrical voice, he often used when speaking in front of his many fans.

"Hail evil demon lord I the great hero…" What would have followed this interrupted opening line was a dramatic and cheesy and odiously long speech that I only knew because he had liked to practice in front of me every night for painful hours on end before while we camped for the night while we had been traveling to reach the demon lords castle. Knowing the contents of the speech I decided to spare both our ears mine and the demon lords and as quickly as it took to reach him whacked him on the back of his head with the hilt of my sword, and he fell to the ground unconscious. I then took his magic sword I had been greatly coveting it since the beginning and as this would be the last opportunity I would ever have to use it and as that was his fault I felt justified in taking it and prepared to attack the demon lord.


	2. A Glimpse of Past Events

A Very Long Prologue Part 2: A Glimpse of Past Events

Heroes come from nobles family's with heroic lineage, mages and wizards come with noble families with magic lineage, but the main difference between them and peasants besides being able to legally use magic and skills,peasants using them is illegal, was the large amounts of training they got throughout their life for free. I was from peasant lineage but after a lot of research , gained from informally interviewing hero mages and through countless experiments, I had confirmed I was extremely powerful in magic…in fact I had calculated that if I had been given any training I probably could have been stood on equal standing with the greatest of Magnus

But as reality was different, I through trial and error and illegally sneaking into libraries to read books at night just me being able to read was illegal and had learned a few tricks and enough control over my powers so that they didn't run amuck and destroy me. I am telling you this to explain how I was able to take the device the pope gave me that was supposed to teleport us back home only after we killed the demon lord…and forced it to become a device that would transport only hero back home along with a magical message that would say that they had better keep their end of the bargain the whole of the bargain and send their best priests and paladins to kill the weakened demon lord when I failed… If that is what they really wanted to do Once hero safely vanished in a flash of light I rushed the demon lord and attacked with the magic sword.

The demon lord and I have been battling for three days now, and still neither of us tires. On the contrary, in the case of the demon lord, strangely he seemed to be almost growing stronger. Unable to let my attention lax, I utilize in my thinking only the part of my mind that is distanced from the parts that are battling, thinking of strategies and focusing on my powerful survival instinct and sword skills to keep up against this boss level guy. While I appear basically calm, in that distanced part me I am concerned that soon his steadily growing strength would be enough enough to kill me. Or maybe, in that same distanced self…he has hiding his true strength from the beginning and he is toying with me. After mulling over this and various other theories I come to a simple conclusion.

Whether he kills me or not it doesn't matter, as I was going to die whether he killed me or not…and supposedly I just had to buy enough time that the theoretical army of priests and paladins would be able to make their way here and kill him…I strangely felt guilty about this…I wondered why? After all it is my job…well technically it was my Heroes that I am once again doing in his place, but still under his name, job but that is besides the point…I should have no reason to feel guilty…especially as no matter what happens I will die but he still has a great chance of living, especially since the armies are so incompetent…and once again the whole situation strikes me as really fishy. Ever since I first heard about this suicide mission, I have had a funny feeling that goes beyond the fact that they black mailed me into this by threatening my family. They also unnecessarily and easily tricked the incredibly stupid Hero into going with the promise of that stupid reward, and still no matter how I look at it there is was no good reason to kill me, or more importantly to them risk him…or possibly seeing how things turned out they do want him more accurately they want us dead. I think back to this not so distant past in order to try and figure it out.

Flashback:

Hero a young dashing and handsome young man with angelic features and a well-muscled body, is casually standing while wearing shining silver suit of armor, a silk blue cloak…as well as his remarkable expensive and rare magic sword, in a fancy sheath at his hip. Standing beside him is myself, an extremely ordinary or plain young man in tarnished leather and iron armor that is obviously well worn and is in fact only holding together due to my diligent care…by my side is an old dented badly made iron sword, it has no sheath and is held there by a leather string tied to my belt. We are standing in a most beautiful room, with 3 of the four walls having stained glass windows and the 4th wall being mostly a large thick door. There is a large desk made of a golden beautifully polished wood and behind it sits a fat old man wearing masterful tailored ridiculously expensive cloth of gold and the finest silks its color a blinding white. He is the pope…a person who is slightly higher in influence than anyone but technically the king. Technically, because the king is only at most , merely half as smart as hero and this sly old fellow has been tugging on his leading strings since birth and he has never made a move in his life without this old man's say so.

"I have called you here to personally give you an important mission great hero."

I immediately became suspicious as he had no reason to lay it on thick for hero or even summon him here in the first place…I was the one who decided where we went so for all prior missions I was merely sent a trusted servant or slipped a piece of paper, I waited patiently for him to get to the point.

" I have had a vison and in the vison I was told that you, Great Hero are the best choice to defeat the evil demon lord Violent and save this land from his darkness"

"Yes!" Hero did a fist pump…he probably didn't even really understand most what the pope said but the words "best choice" and "defeat the evil" are the kind of things he thinks are cool…so he was unconcerned with anything else…but I was of course a different matter

"Wait a second" I said "…demon lord Valiant that makes no sense! He hasn't done anything evil against us since his arrival and assentation into lordship few hundred years ago…in fact from what I have heard without him being our neighbor after the demon wars ended the other demon lords would have killed us all or enslaved this kingdom a long time ago…"

"Heroes companion I insist that you use the demon lords church sanctioned name of "Violent" when you refer to him, besides even a child knows that all demon lords are evil and thus legally need no other reason than their continued existence for them to be vanquished" the pope smirks at me

"Yeah Peasant even a child knows that" the hero also smirks but with his beautiful face it comes out as a dignified sneer. "

"Besides it is not a companion's job to worry about minor things like that, it is your job to follow orders, now as an incentive for doing such a great and noble deed, I have been granted power by the king to make the necessary accommodations to fulfill one favor you ask for"

"Oh! Oh! I know what I want! I know just what I want!" Hero calls out exitiedly bouncing a bit "So I have been wanting to hire that famous sculptor that is so popular these days to build a golden statue of myself to share my beauty with the public…but that guy is really pricy and when I asked my father he said his hands are tied right now as he is building our new and doesn't have much extra gold so I didn't have enough saved from my missions. So I want my favor to be that the church builds me a statue showing my greatness!"

The pope hides a strange giggle behind a palm that completely doesn't match his image then says

"Done and I think it is time for you to prepare for your journey"

"Nah, Peasant will take care of it he always does…and besides I dropped my latest girl because she started to get clingy and I haven't had time to get a new one yet so I have no one to say goodbye to"

The pope gives up on trying giving hints and shouts

"will you please leave!"

Hero shrugs and leaves the room. The pope waits until he shuts the door then smiles evilly at me, his eyes looking very knowing

"Peasant we have yet to hear your favor…might I make a suggestion?"

"You will do so whether I give you permission or not so why do you bother asking my permission?"

The pope looks annoyed for a moment then shrugs it off

"I hear you still visit your family…have they been well"

I freeze, to the point that I temporarily stop breathing

"I suggest that if you want your family to continue to do well…that you ask for that as a favor"

Although I am still a peasant being a hero's companion makes me a higher status then my family…so there has been much awkwardness between us the past few years but even so I love my family and they are the only thing besides my dream that I care about…whenever I get the chance I go to visit them…I shudder at the thought of what an organization like the church could do to them with all its power and connections and say desperately.

"why do you want me to do this suicide mission so badly, even if it the way of it made sense it is impossible for a useless hero and a peasant companion dressed as a guard to defeat a high level demon lord"

Knowing that he has me beat the pope makes a wide smile, and with a fanatical gleam in his eye he answers me

"It doesn't make sense you say? It makes perfect sense, in my vision a "god" asked me to arrange to kill the demon lord Valiant and in return I would be granted the right to ask for one wish…oh the many things I can ask for from a god…great riches? Kingdoms? Even my cherished dream Eternal youth? So many wonderful options…Now about the solution to this problem…I do know that, although thanks to you, your hero has the highest mission success rate that you are indeed admittedly no match against a demon lord …which is why I am going to sacrifice the dearest treasure of my family in order to give you

a chance…in defeating him but you are right in thinking that it is a suicide mission."

He reaches into his robes and hands me a silver bottle.

"This is what's known as 'heroic water' ah you have heard of it? It grants great power, a match for even the demon lord…unfortunately it does this by taking all the years you have left to live…and concentrating them in a single month, but it only works correctly so long as you are fighting. As soon as you stop to rest for more than a few moments you will die an extremely painful death. The plan is you hold off the demon lord for a month and after that month I will send an army of priests and paladins to kill the demon lord off while he is in his weakened state. "

"This makes no sense! You said so yourself that I have the highest success rate, why would you sacrifice me like this?"

"Calm down and doesn't worry like I said think of your family's welfare? This isn't my first choice…either it is a last resort, this is in case you with your great brains and talent in war fare can't think of a way to kill the demon lord…you can take as much time as you want figuring out a way to do it…besides think about it won't the demon lord be angry if you attempt to kill him and fail angry enough to lash out against your family and the rest of this nation after to killing you? It is assurance in many ways besides the demon lord's death. Now take this"

He hands me a strange device

"That device has been magic to teleport you back here but only after you succeed in killing the demon lord, and it won't work otherwise only if you somehow succeed it will be activated…whether or not you decide to drink the heroic water, I will round up the army and send them after you in a month or so and they should be enough to kill the demon lord…but as they are valuable tools I rather not have some of them die in a useless fight just like you feel your family is valuable and you would rather not fight or put them in danger…a blessing on your soul Peasant and may the gods smile upon you"

Suddenly the sly old man has a most holy and benign expression on his face, this masterful display of acting skill gives me a great hint as to how he became the pope…I leave cursing my fate wishing things could be different.

Flashback end


	3. An Unexpected Outcome

A Very Long Prologue Part 3: An Unexpected Outcome before the Expected Ending

I slowly come out of the painful flashback and into the current deadly reality of my one sided death match with the demon lord. I stop thinking using parts of my mind to think about the past and present theories and completely focus on our fight…and I soon forget everything but out our battle. At some point after I started to only focus on fighting I look at the demon lord and realize that he is no longer wearing a calm expression on his face…in fact he is smiling I realize that I am also grinning…I realize that I am happy…as I have said my dream has always been to become strong. And I have thought about it and I think that after I am strong and achieve what I had wanted it would be fun to then be able fight other people who are stronger than me until I am stronger than them…and then they would work to get stronger than me again…

Most of my dream will remain unaccomplished because I cannot use the power for the purpose I wanted to for but at least right now for a while I am strong…and I am fighting against the demon lord who is incontestably strong. Suddenly because my thirst for battle is being satisfied for the first time, and as the potion is suppressing all my body's needs ,as long as I keep fighting I won't' feel any discomfort or pain, another urge is making itself known…curiosity…and another need that I have suppressed except for the rare times I visit home… as hero was not much of a conversationalist; that is my need for social interaction. Words pop out of my mouth before I can stop them.

"Do you know if you have displeased a god lately?"

He is shocked, so shocked that my sword slips past his formally flawless guard and scratches his armor but he soon recovers and says

"I don't think so why?"

"Because according to the pope that is why I was sent to kill you"

I explain why I am here, and why I am fighting him like this. Surprisingly he gets angry, strangely not at me, no he his angry at the pope, and he is angry especially at hero for reasons whose source is soon revealed to be simple bias as heroes have always been pests that annoy him.

"I have never understood human culture especially of that of your Alfdorn... " He proceeds to then go on a small rant about the stupidity of humans and human culture in general and proceeds to insult human nobility specifically, mostly using digs aimed heroes and their parentage and then gives several amusing anecdotes of hero's that came in the past that tried to kill him as examples to support his insults. He eventually comes back to my original question saying:

"If there was an actual vision and your pope wasn't lying it probably wasn't a god that sent the vision, most gods aren't amused by the whole 'hero vs. demon lord' story anymore and it has been too overdone, and if a god isn't entertained by something they probably and usually won't have anything to do with it. Also a god wouldn't give such an awesome gift as a wish with no limits, just for killing me. It is also probably not one of my rivals …as the only demon lords I know powerful enough to reach a person as full of holy magic as popes are not the kind of people to play that sort of game"

I think about this for a moment…blocking a few attacks while getting in a few swipes of my own…It just must just remain an unsolved mystery then, I think to myself disappointed. As I am not quite ready to drop it yet as it is part of the events that led up to my future cause of death, I think on it a few minutes more and then realize something.

"Actually now that I think about it, the pope isn't that stupid to fall for something fakes…so it's possible that a powerful mage bewitched him to start another demon war…I have heard there is lots of money in wars…and I theorize that if you were gone there would be absolute chaos"

To my continuing lessoning surprise, the demon lord picks up on my conversation theme and continues it. We proceed to talk about our theories to do with why this happened, and also about demon wars. I was surprised to find out how similarly we seemed to think, despite him being much older than me and of another race. When I mentioned this to him he laughed and said he felt the same way. Thus our battle slash conversation continued on and before I know it three days have passed.

On the fourth day through the sixth day among many other things I talked to him about my deeper past. I spoke of my happy childhood and the incident involving bullies, my siblings, and my inability to protect us, that eventually sparked my desire to be strong. I also talked about my plan to join the guard to learn as much combat experience as peasant was legally allowed to have and my fantasies of performing such a great deed that I was knighted and eventually elevated up to the nobility. Then I spoke of how I was picked to be the hero's companion which started him on another rant about the stupidity of heroes. Which I teased him out of with a few jokes, and some of my own personal hero stories that I witnessed, including a version of Hero's speech with my own comments and opinions included, I ended with:

"You know, you probably didn't notice because I got him out of the action so quickly but Hero was greatly infuriated at you because you are more handsome then him."

He got a good laugh out of the idea of a hero being jealous of a demon lord. Then he told me that among demons he is considered handsome but it is not because of his appearance, in fact based solely on appearances to a demon he is rather ugly, his mother was a vampire queen (he inherited her appearance) and his father a demon knight (he inherited his strength), apparently a demons and a humans versions of beauty are completely opposite of each other what is ugly to a human is attractive to most demons, (the reason vampires are so beautiful is obviously to attract humans which is their preferred prey). Anyway the reason why he is considered handsome is because among demons what is attractive is strength, someone who looks strong is attractive whether they are actually strong or not, but someone who actually is strong is extremely attractive to the point that their appearance doesn't matter at all.

On the sixth through 8th day among many other things I talked about, my life after being picked…how my hero would make messes and I would fix them, and how when we were given missions I always ended up doing all the work. I then shared that eventually I found out ways to control my hero subtly I would use simple words that he could understand in tricky ways so that he would end up believing that what I wanted to do was his idea in the first place. I also used food as a bribe I am an excellent cook and as long as no one was looking he would let me order him around so long as I promised to make meals for him. I also complained about my hero's ridiculous problems with women how he is constantly seducing them and then dumping them so that there is always some woman out for revenge that I have to find a way to pacify. I also complained about my interactions with his many "fans" that are constantly bothering me. This is because as a noble hero is out of reach to most of them except in fantasies, but as a peasant I am absolutely within reach so they can bother me asking for help meeting or getting together with him. The demon lord shrugged and said with demon females things are simple if one likes you they will attack you and if they manage to make you bleed they are granted permission to court you. By the same token, If you like them you could pick a fight with them…to start a process that could end with sex, a mating (demon version of marriage), but usually both. There are very rarely intermediaries in demon relationships and that is only usually in arranged marriages used to seal contracts and treaties. That is unlike humans there are no match makers. He also talked about how females have always been following him around since he started on the path to strength and while it isn't quite as annoying or as bad as my situation with heroes women it was bad enough to make him prefer solitude…and one of the reasons leading him to him having no friends of either sex.

"I noticed something, while you talked often of your family and the heroes' lovers you have never talked of your own lovers…or even of that human concept of "girl friends" you spoke of"

I stumble and then proceed to slightly slow down and lose grace in my fighting because I am avoiding looking at his face out of embarrassment and that is where most of his cues small as they are lie. "Well…I have never had either of those" I eventually admit.

"Why are you so embarrassed?" he guesses correctly "That is not something to be ashamed of nor is it that big a deal"

I look at him in surprise, my experience with other men since boyhood is that they all (are obsessed with want women desperately and admitting or allowing others to discover your virginity or even just your lack of lady friends is enough to get you mocked and insulted…

The demon lord continues to share about his culture

"Among most demons virginity only really matters if you are trying to get married to certain families with high class bloodlines especially in the case of females but some of the stricter family's won't accept a male officially if they have had other bed mates. With most demons it is really easy to mate with those you have sex, and since most demons only sex for love or want of bloodlines, most unmated demons are still virgins…in fact I am also virgin"

"Didn't you mention that you are constantly being attacked by women? And aren't you at least a couple hundred years old?" I am shocked

"Unless it is wartime and they are seriously attacking with the intent to kill or gain information I am allowed to refuse to fight any women that confront me or block their attacks. I am only 305 years old, which is not very old in demon terms, I am considered as a young man or 'teenager' and I am often called a prodigy for how quickly I became a demon lord, plus none of the woman who liked me impressed me, and I never saw any women who impressed me at all who were unmated. Like I said before it is not such a big deal or even mildly shocking among demon kind, I often wonder especially when I see all the troubles it causes, why humans are so obsessed with it…it is no big deal"

I think about this for quite a while, it seems sometimes that the demon world and the human world are complete opposites of each other which I come to realize in many cases is not necessarily a bad thing. The only areas demon morals greatly clash with human morals is the demon penchant for violence which is twice that of humans (this is mainly because as I later found out, their hierarchy which is based on strength) to me this doesn't very unreasonable, but I can understand how in the eyes of someone who has been raised in a world where relative peace is coveted and violence is pretended to be something only criminals do, (unless you are a hero or something similar then it is glorified) the demon way of life was a bit hard to swallow

"Wait a moment I have often heard and read a lot about how demons are supposed to be sex maniacs…and then you tell me a lot of unmated demons are mortals? Where do all the demon seducer tales come in?"

"It is as I said all un-mated demons tend to be virgins, but this does not take into account those whose mate dies…or the exception of the demon known as the succubus, when demons are at war many mates die...but most of those demons don't lose their desire to copulate…and after one is mated once, it is rather hard for one to become mated again as they are still mated even though their mate is dead. Now when it comes to succubus's, or more accurate a certain kind of succubus which are probably the source of the majority of the stories you have heard…like vampires they like to prey upon humans but in an entirely different way…and instead of blood (though like most demons they won't say no to blood either) they want energy"

We discuss succubus's and a variety of other demon races for a time then end up back on the topic of women, I explain my reasons for not having any, mostly my extreme busyness, when I was young I was always working to help to earn money for the family, later on it was because I was training to enter the guard, then training while in the guard and then when I was picked by hero it was practically non-stop work planning missions and cleaning up messes.

It was also because I had plain face (but many woman care more about money and power more than that and as someone with the heroes ear I often received many offers from other peasants, and once this one noble widow who felt like slumming it) but second in importance to being busy, was because I never saw any women that looked like they would be worth the hassle, or as the demon lord put it none "impressed" me. Even if the woman in question was extremely beautiful they usually had a horrid personality or didn't match my tastes in another way. None seemed worth braving all the many dangers involved in the act which I learned firsthand from seeing Hero in action. Which there are surprisingly besides the standard obvious diseases and pregnancy. For example when things go sour in a relationship, things could escalate quickly to the woman hiring thugs or assassins or even taking up a weapon herself and if she was from a good family no mercenaries were necessary because her parents, siblings, cousins and even friends would take up the torch. If they were also nobility and the affair was found out you have to pay a ton of restitution money, it was luckily hero was rich because of his family's allowance because the income we received doing lucrative hero jobs might not have been enough to pay for all the woman problems alone.

Occasionally I would see the other side of the coin when I paid my weekly visit to a bar to enjoy rumors, company that didn't care who I was and alcohol. This side seemed even more unpleasant then a woman taking revenge, because it was portrayed so well by wretched drunken heartbroken men, whose women left them for various reasons, such as they ran out of money, were demoted in their jobs, or the worst the woman had simply found someone they liked someone they felt was better. By the way before I forget, I am 19, hero is in his 20s probably 25-26 if I had to make a guess, and by my calculations based on appearances and those that know them, the pope is in his late fifties to early sixties and the king is in his early forties or possibly late thirties.

On the 9th through 12 day among many other things he talked about his past, it was extremely fascinating even though it was abbreviated, like me and for similar reasons (only he killed his bullies) he also wanted to become stronger…but unlike me, in the demon world anyone has the opportunity to become stronger, in fact it is greatly encouraged. It seems that nobles in the demon world aren't usually born, they become. The way you become a noble or even royalty is by earning the right to be called the strongest of your age group, race, or country. He also talked about why he decided on this area to rule over…and fought the demon lord who lived here last (a cruel %#$! who only cared about his wealth to the point of obscenity which is why he only bothered the nobles of the time)…In order to gain it as his own.

It turns out that the %#$! was one of many bullies…of his while growing up…giving an added revenge incentive and he liked the places' location as it was far from both human and other demon territories he had helped to end the war…but demons liked to fight each other in various ways even during peace time and the dirty politics caused being close to the demon emperors court didn't appeal to him. He also revealed that he had no servants, no guards, and no military power of any kind other than himself. This was mainly because he was a mostly solitary being but also he saw from many others examples that what most often happened if a lord forms their own court is ends up being a lesser mini version of the emperors court. His parent's court wasn't so bad especially as it was made up of a lot of vampires who liked things done in very orderly need, and beautiful ways to the point where it is often joked by other demons that the reason why vampires like beauty is because they have none for themselves personally. But even though their court was nice enough (especially as his appearance didn't stand out there) he eventually really got the desire to have his own place so he left, he then experienced the horrors of the politics of the emperors court , and decided to look for his own place in a relatively isolated area. I asked why he didn't become a king or even the emperor then change the court politics to suit himself. I had often thought that if I had real power, like that of the nobility I would probably use that privilege to the limit and change everything that I dislike into at least something tolerable. He was silent for a long time after I told him this, with a thoughtful expression on his face.

On the 12th through 15th day among many other things I asked him something that has always bugged me. Why does he and other demon lords always live surrounded by lesser demons and other unintelligent monsters…and why do they not count as servants? He decides to explain it to me…when a demon or other intelligent monster passes a certain power level and is considered a boss level their innate magic grows enough that it effects the environment around them in various ways. One of them is that their enemies' are weakened when they enter the places the boss frequently lives or visits, another is that their power overflow or "miasma" as it is commonly called because of its appearance, thins the fabric the world itself…letting other worlds leak through. Eventually if the place is at least a semi-permanent residence the leaks turn into holes and the lesser demons come out of them…the lesser live off of miasma so if they leave the residence they will die after a couple of days unless they are given regular doses of concentrated magic energy. As the source of the lessers' power they have an instinctive drive to both protect him as well as to fight off rivals, when they defeat a rival or an enemy they gain energy from their death or blood and grow stronger…eventually if a lesser kills enough others off they evolve like any monster eventually possibly even to an intelligent or even boss level. Monsters have a similar system to demons except it is kind of opposite because instead of the monster boss making miiasa that thins the world fabric, they put out presence which strengthens the fabrics magic until it crystalizes…and these crystals then corrupt or mutate other animals or even the earth itself (creating elementals). However any dungeon whether demon or monster in source…has the property of slowly growing unless the crystal is destroyed or taken, or the realm hole is closed.

The so called dungeons in Alfdorn's neighbor Milfa a small monster kingdom, that heroes love to visit because it is easy to gain treasure or rare ingredients- are former boss' residents that were abandoned long ago. Once a hole is made in the fabric of the world it takes an extremely long time to heal unless a boss in full control of their powers (to the point that they don't make holes unless they will it) or a god decides to seal the hole, and most of that sort don't bother. It is obvious that they are abandoned old ones as the monsters that come out of it are so weak.

On the 16th talk of dungeons to my surprise lead to talk about kingdoms, it seems that kingdoms are basically dungeons that grew large enough that the land itself became a realm gate or crystal bed…this of course takes thousands of years…unless a boss purposely chooses to quicken things then it can possibly only take a couple hundred years or so. When a dungeon becomes a kingdom the boss is usually no longer in charge the ruler is. How exactly a ruler is chosen is unknown, but it has to do with affinity to the land and a bloodline with leaders in it. Each kingdom has its own "personality" and flavor that is determined by the majority of the type of creature that lives there…if there are no majorities then it is determined by the race or type of the "ruler". The ruler of a Kingdom has control over the land and the rules of the land. If someone tries to go against the rules of the land (the cultural majority, and the rules the "ruler" makes) then the land "rejects them" and they are either punished with suffering, driven out or killed. The land can "sense" rule breaking and created monsters to kill to execute its ruler's law.

When I heard this great truth about "kingdoms" for the first time… (I think because more that humans don't have the knowledge rather then I not being lucky enough to find it) it was a revelation that had a great impact on me. Many things that I had wondered about before were explained, such as why peasants have never been able to rise up against the king or the church on any great scale, and why despite my many fantasies in my youth neither I nor my family could ever leave even if we wanted to brave the criminal infested Milfa or beg for mercy from our other neighbor the demon ruled Dhemi (Dehmi is where I am currently located). It also (wince) explained a lot of the bad luck that I have continually found myself in. I am known in the hero and adventurer community by the nickname of "monster lodestone" In the past I was always able to defeat the monsters that came against me, but after sharing my experiences with others I found out that monsters coming to attack you is not a common occurrence. And for the others they usually had to be the aggressors. Once I found that it was a trait of mine I started to incorporate it into my plans (but those stories are for another time). This must because of all the little rebellions that I do against the church (the pope) and also because despite the king and other nobles making it illegal I taught myself to read…and experimented in controlling my magic. This also explained, that one peasant family I met on a monster subjugation mission, who also knew how to read, and were suffering many more monster attacks compared to their ignorant neighbors.

It also adds new meaning to when he talked about how he didn't like demon politics. Apparently the demon emperor is this kingdoms ruler, but unlike Alfdorn, Dehimi's ruler and rules can be changed and "often" do (for a race of creatures that near immortal at least). As said all a demon who wants to become emperor (and be accepted by the land as the true ruler) is to prove themselves the strongest of all demons.

On the 17th day among many other things I asked him out of curiosity why hadn't he killed me yet…I wasn't complaining it was most enjoyable to fight him…as well as to learn things from him, but I was curious as to why he didn't especially after I revealed to him the possibility of an army of priests arriving because of me.

"Because you are interesting" he explains

"It has been a long time since I got to fight someone for just the enjoyment, also you are not full of fear, neither at me nor at your own fate, and do you realize how rare this is?"

"I don't know about rare but I act this way because I am a live in the moment sort of person most of the time I tend not to think of the past or future unless I need to, I usually only think about the here and now" I explain this and as I do I have the hidden knowledge that if my body wasn't in an abnormal state I would have blushed.

"So what are you going to do about the supposed army of priests?" I ask a lot less concerned then I would have been weeks ago as I now a far better grasp on this demon lords true strength.

The demon lord smirks mischievously.

"I will leave an almost harmless little surprise for them…and while they are distracted I will sneak out the back door that only I can enter, they will undoubtedly then spread rumors of my death which I will kindly not invalidate…then after a couple of their lifetimes maybe about a hundred years or so, when all the fuss dies down…then I will come back…I really do prefer this one out of all the lairs I have conquered so far, and I am not quite ready to give it up."

"…" I don't say anything at all to this

On the 17th through 20th day among many other things he brings up the idea of him raising me up as an undead servant after the potions effects end. Though he is technically not an undead himself (his mother is a living vampire) he has a mostly unused talent to create and summon undead or necromancy.

"Being undead isn't that bad from what I have heard"

he encourages me "with my type of advanced spell you don't rot, smell bad or even change much and you don't feel hunger…like the lessors you will survive off of my magic…undead are monsters so you would be able to access status and easily level up and quickly get stronger there is also always the chance to evolve…I really would like it if you accept this offer…this is the first time I have made an offer like this and this is the first time I have had so much fun fighting and sharing things with anyone who wasn't my family."

"I am really flattered but sadly it is not possible."

"Why not?" he cries "I would be a far better master then your stupid hero ever could be plus-"

I quickly interrupt him "it is not that I don't want to or hate the idea of being resurrected that way, but I don't think it is possible for me in particular. You see my family was really religious and they saved up all their money to have each of their children blessed by a priest when I was young, then when I was chosen as a hero's companion I received many blessings from various priests bishops and even a couple from the pope. One time we were hunting in a dungeon where the boss monster was a necromancer…I had tricked the hero into buying a mercenary priest to come with us to make things easier, and this priest knew the resurrection spell. During the hunt I died, and according to what the priest said later the necromancer tried to raise me as undead…and he somehow couldn't , then when the priest resurrected me he said it all of his mana and it was so difficult that he thought at several points that the spell would fail. I talked to him about it more after words and after a bribe…he explained everything he knew…apparently there are a few people that are difficult to resurrect and near impossible to raise as undead and I was lucky that he was so high leveled or it would have failed, in fact he was a pope candidate. This is just one of my biggest examples…we once fought against a group of warlocks and they tried to use soul capture on me, and it somehow backfired on them and they nearly died…so I don't think you should even try to capture me in that way."

20th through 29 day He is silent for a long time after the conversation about my unique (in this case disability) eventually he goes back to other random topics but now then there are long pauses like he is deep in thought

30th day we are both completely silent neither of us is willing to acknowledge the dragon in the room. That is this is the day of my death…but a few hours after the day begins (for your knowledge we had been telling time through the demon lords knowledge as an intelligent monster that guy was as good as a clock) we fight as if we are just beginning as if we had just met and decided to kill each other, harder and faster than we had before. Although the demon lord is much stronger and skilled then I even with the heroic water, 30 days of constant fighting have changed me and I am much more skilled compared to before plus I have learned a lot of his fighting style and cues…and am able to predict some of his movements…so he no longer has to hold back as I suspect he did. Our movements are extremely fast and we are constantly reacting to each other in such away it is almost like we are dancing.

When the effects of the hero water hit me I am lucky because it was my turn to attack and he had yet to counter attack so instead of attacking I just collapsed to the floor…if I hadn't been fighting this whole time I bet I would have been in extreme pain right now…but since I had used the water to its max potential I merely feel for the first time in 30 days sleepy and comfortably tired…I can't feel my body or limbs…I can barely move…and I struggle just to breathe even though I don't feel the struggle. I force my eyes to see the face of the demon lord who is looking down at me, a complex expression on his face, I smile at it and gather the rest of my breath and strength to say.

"Thank you" then I close my eyes. In the distance I can hear the pounding of an army of feet and the cries of many dyeing lessor…and the strange musical voice of the demon lord as he starts singing a strange spell…then even that fades away and there is nothing at all.


End file.
